PAIN : THE BOOK END

Pain is Peter Tagtgren, and Peter Tagtgren is Pain, a one-man side project of Hypocrisy founded in 96, when the famous death and black metal producer discovered computers and put on record everything that did not fit in with his other projects. Electronica, heavy metal, industrial, all he could think of and write, play, record, mix and produce himself, in the solitude of the studio, this time with the help of a few friends, including Alexi Lahio and Mikkey Dee, Motorhead’s drummer as well as In Flames bass player Peter Iwers. Four years after his last album, Pain is back, and it’s a pleasure. Peter himself is here to talk about it.

-the new Pain album will be out next month: what is the general feeling of it and the main break with the previous one?

-PT: I’m very happy with it! The ones here is dynamic, more ironic, not a wall of sounds but he has some ups and down, and I think it’s a little bit wider because we can find more music styles in it, not only typical Pain style but a bit of this and that. It’s the same with vocals: I worked a lot on it to get them more diverse, sometimes super heavy and sometimes super clean. Overall, I think it’s a wider album than the previous ones…with better songs I hope!

-We can find a Bjork’s cover on this LP: how did you choose it and were you a fan of her?

-PT: I really like Bjork, and I won’t do any cover because someone says it would sell more or something like that. I covered it because I like the song. I was working on a cover album, just to get out of the Universal stuff, and when I’ve done with it, I started to concentrate on a really new album. I had four or five covers already done on the side, and this one turned to be so good that I wanted to put it in the album.

-About the lyrics, can we found some UFO stories on this record, as you did in the past?

-PT: No, because life is an UFO! Pain has never had lyrics about UFOs or stuff like that, it’s more Hypocrisy stuff. Pain deals more with all kind of stuff: sarcasm or zombie kind of horror stuff, or where are we going with this world, as you walk out you get your skin burned and get cancer, where are our kids gonna go, it’s a bunch of different topics, and every song has his own story.

-That’s our first album for Roadrunner, as licence: how did you choose them?

-PT: It’s a licence for me but they are the main record label. We’ve been talking since a long time to try to find another label, because Universal has their Robbie Williams or whatever and, when you release an album, they don’t care. You don’t have any priority compared to Eminem or Bon Jovi! But here, all artists are a priority for Roadrunner, which is good. In Scandinavia, Pain has always been big, very successful, because they are working at it very hard in their office in Sweden and Finland and when you go to Germany or France, they go straight with you. I mean today in France, it’s the first day of promotion outside Scandinavia and I can see already the difference. I have good feelings about it. It’s definitely a metal label.

-Some years ago, you decided to partially close your own Abyss Studios, except for your music and some bands you particularly enjoy: did you regret later this choice?

-PT: No. I’m more flexible now, and I’ll definitely keep on produce bands, but only bands that I’m really hundred per cent into. I don’t want to do it because I have to play a bill, that’s always how it should be. When I do things, I do it hundred per cent or I don’t. I wanna do it because there’s a challenge because I like the band or because I think the music is interesting or when I can bring something to them.

-What are your next projects in this sense?

-PT: Well, I guess I’m gonna do the next Die Krupps album, hopefully. They want me to help them write songs and produce. So we’ll see what happens.

-Do you think you’ll produce the next Celtic Frost album?

-PT: If they want me to do it, yes, of course! But there’s nothing yet on the schedule, I didn’t hear anything about it. But I’ll do it for sure if they want!

-Talking about that, what do you think of them, and how has been your collaboration on ‘Monotheist’?

-PT: For me it was very hard, because I’ve got my divorce then, my grandfather died and all this crazy stuff happen at the same time we did the record. And also of course there was a big challenge because I had a kind of point of view about which way Celtic Frost should go and they has another view, so we were colliding all the time, but I think in the end it’s a masterpiece. I listen to them since 83 or something, even before it was Celtic Frost, as Hellhammer. The songs were so heavy, it was a mix of Black Sabbath and a new dimension, something I had never heard before. It was so dark and it was evil and totally beyond everything.

-Could you say one record you would have loved to play on, recent or in the past?

-PT: Well, I don’t know! I would say Kiss ‘Destroyer’, maybe, would have been nice! But it came out in 76, so I was very young!

-I’ve heard you were a Kiss and Slayer fan: did they never ask you to produce them?

PT: I would have loved to do it, but I’m too small for them! I don’t even know if they know who I am…but I know who they are!

-What has been your greatest joys and deception through all your years in music?

-PT: I’ve got a lot of mood swings when it comes to myself, I know that. It’s all about creating art, and sometimes it’s very easy to do it, sometimes it’s hard. The hardest part is always that comes out good also. It’s very rewarding when it’s done and you sit with your album because with Pain I’m doing everything myself, I don’t have a fancy producer of people making the sound for me or doing this or that, it’s only me. So, at the end, when it’s done, it’s very rewarding, but when I’m working on it, it’s chaos!

-It is some records you’re particularly proud of?

-PT: Definitely the new Pain album. As a producer, ‘Monotheist’, definitely. And Immortal, the three of them: together, we took Immortal to a new level when started working together. I’m very happy and they are very good guys and good friends. Also Dimmu Borgir: ‘Enthrone Darkness Triumphant’ blew everybody away, and it was good to be a part of that too .We did the new version of ‘Stormblast’ which took three weeks to record, mix and mastering. But it was a middle thing for them to do the new album, they wanted to re-record it and considering the time we spent on it, it turned out ok.

-Today, being caught between Pain, Hypocrisy and producing brings you a kind of balance; do you need the three of them?

-PT: Yes, because one day you wake up and want definitely do more crazy stuff with technology and the next day you want something very brutal and fast. The best reward is also when you go on tour afterwards, play the songs and see the response of the kids and people saying it’s great, it’s unpayable! No money that is worth that feeling.

-What did you discover recently in music which really turned you on?

-PT: I love Gojira, which are very interesting and I think they’ll go very far. When I think of it, there’s always something coming up, the right band at the right moment, and I’ll do it.

-When will we see you live in Paris?

-PT: I know for sure it will be September or October, but I really want to come before

Some clubs gigs or else, but I don’t know what gonna happen yet, but at last it will be septembre or October. At the moment, we have Andra, Clawfinger bass player, David, the drummer I’m using for four years now, and also another guy called Michael, who also play in Eight Sin. Pain is a new band again, we only did two gigs together but it’s totally crazy on stage, guitars and bass flying everywhere on stage, it’s chaos, it’s fun.

Interview made in Paris in March 2007

Thanks to Roadrunner, Karine, Mathilde, Sabrina,for their help.